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Early Tuesday morning found Danny sitting in his office, sipping on a subpar, extra dark, lukewarm, mug of coffee. Not that he should complain since he was the one who brewed the pot.

The piles of files and paperwork in his inbox keep growing, so an early start seemed like a more prudent plan than a late night at work.

He had his kids this evening for exactly four hours, two of those spent sitting in the gymnasium of the Rec Center, watching Gracie's volleyball practice, while Charlie played.

Later, they would head to his house for a quick bite to eat, probably pasta, since it was a quick supper to make, and some quality family time until their mom came to pick them up at eight sharp.

He wasn't bitter about it, honestly.

He had just been so busy, and so had Rachel and the kids, and it was hard to schedule weekdays while his team had active cases, which was usually the norm.

Currently, he was working on six open and three cold cases.

He thought, /Wouldn't it be great if we could wrap up crime in a single day without barely breaking a sweat, like in the buddy cop TV shows,/i but that just wasn't how real-life police work happened.

So he opened his laptop. He checked his work email in the hopes of seeing anything new. A report from SI or the Coroner that he could use to generate some new angle, some new lead to follow up with, in the hope of clearing some of his backlogs.

At least Steve was great about giving him off weekends to be with his kids.

Twenty minutes later, a little before seven in the morning, he went to the printer to pull the copies he had printed to add to the hard files he preferred to keep.

Lou had finally gotten Handrick's financials and forwarded them to the team before he had left the evening before.

Handrick and his law practice was their newest case. A local business, with many political ties, which involved suspected arson of their office in the financial district of Honolulu.

They had little to go on. The crime hadn't even made the first page of the Honolulu Star. The media hadn't considered the case high-profile. So, Five-O wouldn't get media coverage that could help them cultivate leads.

At the very least, Danny wouldn't have to worry about being ambushed in the parking lot by overzealous journalist, asking questions they both knew that he couldn't answer.

The other's offices were still dark as he returned to his chair, but he looked up a bit later when the hallway light came on and nodded at Lou when he came strolling past and made for his own office.

Danny's coworker returned a few minutes later. Sipping from his cup, not complaining about the extra-strong brew, and Danny thought, ibetcha he's the only one that won't complain./i

Lou casually leaned against his office door frame, allowing Danny to continue squinting and reading the printed pages he just retrieved.

A second later, Steve came through, sticking his head in to give Danny and Lou a little wave before heading to his workspace.

A phone in Steve's office rang a minute later, and he and Lou gave each other a knowing look, as that ring meant only one thing.

He heard Steve saying, "Governor," before looking back toward his paperwork. Lou walked the rest of the way into his space and sunk into the leather chair, facing Danny's desk to finish off his coffee.

"Doesn't bode well," Lou said, sitting his cup on Danny's desk, and Danny could see the dregs of the coffee and the permanent dark ring around the top of Lou's favorite mug.

"Nope," he agreed, giving up and slipping the financial report into the thinnest folder sitting on the top of the pile on his desk. Danny knew once Jerry got in, he would go over it and pass on any information he gleaned, even if there is nothing to be found.

"Volleyball today?" Lou asked, shifting in his chair, and Danny knew his friend was just trying to put off the inevitable by making small talk.

"Yup. You?" He asked, pushing the laptop to the side and giving Lou his full attention.

"Baseball. How about we meet up with the kids after and get dinner-pizza, maybe?"

Danny thought about the precious time he got to spend with his kids tonight, but also about the budding romance between Grace and Will, and so he said, "sounds good."

Going out to dinner wouldn't take away from his family time and would make Grace infinitely happier with her evening.

They both looked toward the door when Steve wrapped his knuckles against the frame and said, "where are we on the Wilmore Fern case?"

"Ah," Lou said, standing slowly from the chair and grabbing his coffee cup, "I was betting on Handrick's, but Wilmore Fern was bound to come around again too."

The three men made their way to the computer table as Tani and Junior finally showed up, looking a little rushed, but both holding a fresh cup of carry-out coffee.

Tani stood next to Danny, bumping him with her shoulder as Junior went to stand on the other side, between Lou and Steve, and their boss got the morning briefing started.

"Starting with Wilmore Fern," he told them. "The good Governor has requested an update as he received a call from his friend Fern.

It seems the press has been poking around, interviewing acquaintances of the ex-husband, trying to dig something up, nothing sells better than sensationalism."

Tani touched the tabletop screen and inputted some information to pull up the Wilmore Fern case.

The pictures come first, always the hardest part of any case file, for Danny anyway, and then the typed notes and official reports displayed on the computer.

Steve walked closer to the hanging screen and started the review, including the case date and first-day particulars.

"No evidence of forced entry," he began. "No prints or foreign DNA," his boss sighed and went on, "no eyewitness from initial canvas, no tipsters reported, although we do have a witness that came forward who saw the victim return home on the 21st."

Danny knew more bad news was coming, as he had just reviewed the month-old case reports the past Friday.

Steve went on, "SI confirmed the stocking used to strangle her came from her lingerie.

Freshly laundered black lace panties with a garter and matching black lace bra was found folded neatly on top of other lingerie, confirmed to have been a gift from her ex-husband from the previous Christmas."

"A gift for himself," Tani piped in, trying for some levity. Still, her comments fell a little flat, even though Danny gave her a little shove with his elbow to let her know her attempt was at least appreciated.

In their line of work, they had to do whatever they needed to stay sane and not burn out.

Steve went on, "a single black silk stocking was found toward the bottom of the drawer."

The next page of the report showed pictures of the intact stocking. The one used to strangle their victim and then photos of the bra, panties, and garter and then the contents of everything else in the drawer.

Danny would usually give pictures like these a once over after receiving them, to see if he felt anything there was of value. If not, he wouldn't necessarily review them more than once. Still, even though he had looked over these photos just a few days before, he paid close attention as Tani flipped from picture to picture taken by the SI team.

There were six matching lingerie sets. Each with garter and stockings, which probably only meant that the victim's ex-husband had a fondness for silk stocking, but then something else occurred to him.

"Wait," he said. "Go back to the beginning."

Tani complied. Going back to the first picture of the black nightie set and then forwarded through the rest for a total of six matching sets. Light blue, soft yellow, hot pink, neon green, and a vibrant purple.

"I think a set is missing," Danny told them. "I mean-I am not for sure, but I think there should be a deep red."

He was intensely aware that all his colleagues were either directly looking at him now or giving him a side-eye. Still, as he had proved once before, he did have a working knowledge of beautiful lingerie.

Steve only said, "Tani make a note to follow up with the company to see if this indeed is a collection. If so, I will follow up with Fern Jr. to determine if he purchased the whole collection – could mean our perp did take a souvenir - good eye, Danno. Junior, run a search to see if there are any reported complaints of voyeurism or break-ins where only underwear or other small personal items were taken."

The next few pictures showed other, even more, personal items, found in the drawer, his and her lubrication, a roll of ridged condoms, including six torn and empty packets, two small, but colorful vibrators, and a rather large, and lifelike dildo.

Fingerprint dusting covered those items. Only the victim's prints were found, except the empty condom packs, they had no prints at all. That meant the murderer had more than likely used them to rape the victim and then wiped them down to remove the evidence, or perhaps he used gloves.

No one commented on the rest of the items, as Steve had already gone over the fact that there was no foreign prints or DNA

Next on the screen was Junior's findings from his and Tani's questioning of friends and coworkers.

Junior took over the briefing. Telling them, "Tani confirmed that her coworker, Alani Hale, was the incoming call her brother reported that caused her to cut her evening short. She relayed that Ashley needed to be at work early on Monday morning. They had both been assigned work that needed to be completed over the weekend to be able to be ready for the meeting on their client's audit. The audit was slated for eight Monday morning.

Alani had tried to call a few times over the weekend, both Ashley's cell and landline, but all calls went to voice mail.

She stated she hadn't found that as odd. They were both tasked with different verifications areas for their client and that Ashley often wouldn't pick up if she were working with a time crunch.

The victim's phone records show those incoming calls and various others, including friends."

The next page was a listing of all incoming calls over the weekend but showed none outgoing.

"Her office phoned her at 8:23 A.M., on the 24th of June. Then her brother's calls come in at 9:16, 9:22, and 9:46 A.M. He confirmed his arrival at his sister's home a little before 10:00 A.M. We have his phone records to corroborate those times, including his call to Emergency Services at 10:06 A.M.

I followed up with all the incoming callers and verified weekend alibies, assuming that she had been under her attacker's control once she returned home on that Friday.

A witness came forward who saw the evening news story dedicated to the crime and claims seeing her returning home a little before midnight on the 21st."

The next page showed the official statement of Kaapo Mahoe.

"Mr. Mahoe came in to give me his statement on the 25th. He reported seeing his neighbor return home a little before midnight. That timing checks out with the distance between the Hilton and her home with Friday late-night traffic figured in, so we don't believe she made any additional stops. He remembers the time because his nine-month-old son was teething and had just woken him and his wife, so while she dealt with their son, he went down to the kitchen to get a drink, and the dog woke up. He glanced at the clock then and decided to let the dog out so he could potentially sleep in the next morning.'

"I remember those days," Lou said, "Seems plausible to me."

Danny too, but he kept that thought to himself as Junior went on.

"Mr. Mahoe stated that the dog started to bark after he let him into the front yard. He hadn't seen what the dog was barking at. When he stepped out, Ashley's car pulled into her drive across the street, and she waved and asked about the baby, before unlocking her front door and stepping inside. We are speculating the dog sensed the perp lying in wait nearby.

Mr. Mahoe had confirmed her front door was locked as she had gone through the motions of unlocking both knob and deadbolt and that he thought that her front room light had gone on a few minutes later, and she had turned off her porch light.

Mr. Mahoe stated he stepped back into his house and locked up his own home and went back to the bedroom to find his wife rocking his son, and then they both laid him down in his crib about half an hour later. Mrs. Mahoe's corroborated his statement, and we have ruled him out aa a suspect."

It was Danny's turn, so he went over the onsite questioning of the victim's brother and then the formal statement when he came in the next day. "Mr. Wilmore confirmed his sister's movements on the evening of the 24th, and CC TV has corroborated the time frame. He did not think she was in a current relationship and that the makeup she was wearing at the time of death was not something she would normally wear. SI did not find any matching make up pallets at her home, so we think the suspect brought those items with him."

"Right," Steve went on, "Also, there was no match for anything used to bind her wrists and ankles, so we think he also brought and took those items as well."

He tapped a few buttons on the screen and brought up Noelani's official report.

"Dr. Cunha believes some kind of course rope bound her.

Lividity suggests a supine position with arms restrained over the head.

The death occurred before the positioning of the body at the table.

The victim's bloodwork indicated Hypoxemia, which means she was more than likely denied oxygen over periods of time as a form of torture or control.

Both Carotids were damaged. Her brain blood supply diminished. A small clot was found in her right ventricle, which indicated that her body was already trying to heal from previous attacks.

She had edema of both lungs and infarction of her heart muscle."

"Right," Tani said, unconsciously touching her neck, "a terrible way to die."

Danny bumped her again, this time with his shoulder, showing his agreement. The pictures hadn't done the scene justice, so he was glad that Tani hadn't seen the body in person.

"No doubt," Lou said. "SI said the sheets on the bed were clean. No DNA or fibers on the body either and Noelani has confirmed vaginal and anal intercourse up to 48 hours before the murder, but can't say if it was consensual or not.

There were no tears to indicate forcible penetration."

With all the lack of oxygen, Danny's mind went to a dark place. He was confident his team was thinking the same, so he hadn't voiced his opinion.

He did make a mental note to see if any other reported rapes going back at least a year included strangulation or even domestic disturbances.

This guy had to have gotten started somewhere, and Danny knew that this wasn't his first crime, as the scene was pristine, and that took practice-lots and lots of practice.

"Also," Lou went on, "We have never been able to locate the ex-boyfriend. It's of my opinion that he is either our perp or another victim."

"I don't like him for this," Danny told them. "He has no history of violence. He hasn't ever been arrested…not even a parking ticket on his record. However, his preferred method of transportation lately had been his bicycle.

I did speak with his mother again two weeks ago, and he is now officially reported as a missing person.

Our first conversation and her official statement indicated that he would go off the radar several times a year. Since he had recently broken up with our victim, she, at that time, had not been worried.

She also told me that her son was a pacifist. I have spoken to three former girlfriends who have assured me that he was a gentle person, had never hurt them in any tangible way, and hadn't seen or spoken to him for months.

I have also recently spoken to Detective Iona. As you know, he is handling his missing persons' case, and there was nothing new to report. It seems they have hit a wall on Jay Evert's disappearance."

Steve said, "either way, we can't rule him in or out, so let's see if we can dig more into his past and Lou, can you go speak to Iona again to see if you can coax any more info out of him?

If he doesn't seem too vested, ask him to kick it over to you, and then Tani and Junior can do a deep dive.

"You got it, Sir," Lou said, picking up his empty cup and heading back to the coffee pot.

Tani was looking at her phone but then told them, "Danny is indeed right, a deep red was a part of last year's collection, 'colors of seduction,'" and then she winked at Danny.

He chose to ignore her while Steve told her, "You get on Handrick's financials until Lou needs you. Ask Junior to go over the witness statements of the fire again."

"You got it," she turned smartly on her heel and took herself to her office, calling for "Juns," as she sat at her desk.

Steve just shook his head and gave Danny a once over. "Deep red, huh?"

He turned away from Steve then, walking back to his office, but Steve was close on his heels and shut the door behind them. "Come on, Danno-don't be embarrassed. I found that catalog in your drawer the last time I was there."

Danny plopped down into his chair, his face, he was sure, turning light pink, and he said, "oh, I know ya did…and tell me again why you were looking through my drawers."

He couldn't help but think about all the personal items in Ashley Fern's drawers. Reminded himself once again that he shouldn't keep certain things around because you never knew when your boss and a best friend might decide to rifle through your stuff.

Steve sat too, sorta letting him off the hook, by just saying, "I told ya, I was looking for a clean shirt."

Danny thought about pointing out that Steve knew which drawer was the shirt drawer. That the catalog was not even his, but Melissa's. And that yes, he had bought her a few things on her wish list, but that brought up memories that he hadn't wanted to think about, so instead he said nothing.

Steve fidgeted in his chair a minute or two and then asked, "Volleyball this evening?"

"And pizza with the Grover's after. Can I assume you are inviting yourself along?"

"You can," Steve told him, standing and moving toward the door, telling him, "I am going to see if I can get into see Fern Jr and ask a few more questions.

Want to come with?

With traffic, it'll be lunchtime by the time we get back, so we can stop at that new sushi place everyone is raving about."

Danny gave it some thought, just because he liked to watch Steve while he pretended to decide and then nodded.

"I'm in if you are paying?"

He watched as Steve patted his pockets, looking for his wallet, doing some pretending of his own, and then pulling it from the space he always kept it and said, "looks like you are in luck."

As his friend was leaving his office, Danny called, "What can I say? I'm a lucky guy," and then immediately thought, iif only that was true./i'

iBut who knows. Maybe my luck is changing./i

Steve said, "Leaving in ten, then. I want to stop for some drinkable coffee!"

Danny ignored the dig and went to refill his mug.

H50H50H50

Two kids, one sweaty and tired and the other, only tired, barreled past Steve when he unlocked and opened Danny's front door.

There was a slight back up at the coat rack with dropped bags and shoes kicked off, and Steve toed off his shoes too, making himself at home.

Gracie went down the hall and to her room, and Charlie plopped on the couch, asking, "Daddy, can I have a juice?"

Danny was taking off his work gear, locking his gun and badge in the safe in the hall closet, so Steve handed him his weapon too.

"You know where the juice is, dude."

Steve snickered at the look on Charlie's face. The kid was so much like his father when he got annoyed. But he schooled his features as Danny stepped back into the living room and watched as Charlie pushed through the door to the kitchen.

In the hall bathroom, the shower came on.

Charlie returned from the kitchen with a bag of pretzels in his hands.

The little guy plopped back onto the sofa and turned on the TV to find something to watch.

"You want to shower first?" Danny asked him.

They hadn't been chasing anyone down or doing any kind of physical activity, and Steve hadn't thought that he stunk, so he said, "Nah. I'm good."

Danny nodded, then turned on his heel and went down the hall and presumably to the master bedroom and the bigger bath at the back of the house.

Steve sunk into the cushion next to Charlie and watched as the little boy flipped through the channels, then selecting the Netflix app and a Marvel movie and settled in to watch.

Steve hadn't seen this one yet, but he recognized Captain America and got sucked into the movie with Charlie.

Grace came back through the living room and into the kitchen and then back to the bedroom with a bottle of water and her phone firmly in hand.

Danny showed up a bit later, freshly showered, and changed into a comfy looking tee and sweat pants, his feet bare intriguing. Still, Steve tried not to think about that too much and went back to the action movie on the TV screen.

He was having a problem wrangling his thoughts lately. Still, he knew that Danny hadn't thought about him in the way that Steve was recently thinking about his Danno, so he pushed those thoughts down and asked Charlie, "So, this guy was in the army, huh?"

"Yup."

Danny kept moving into the kitchen, and they could hear him puttering around in there before he called. "Charlie? Can you come here, please?"

Charlie let out a little huff, and Steve followed Danny's mini-me into the kitchen.

Danny had opened two beers and had his back turned away from them, rooting through a cabinet, looking for something.

Charlie asked, "yes, daddy?" and his father turned around to point at the kitchen sink.

"Buddy, when you get a drink of juice, rinse and put away your glass or put it into the dishwasher, okay?"

Charlie looked toward the sink, then said, "but, daddy, I-"

"No, buts, bud."

Danny finally gave up on whatever he was looking for, but turned to them and went on, "we all have to clean up after ourselves. It's the fair and right thing to do."

Charlie moved toward the sink and began to rinse out the glass, but told them, "I had a juice box."

Danny shrugged, handing a beer to Steve, telling his little boy, "sorry, bud. It was probably Grace then, and I will remind her too, but thank you for rinsing the glass anyway."

"Sure, Danno. I don't mind helping out, and I know Grace is tired. She spent the night at Marlo's and told mommy and me she didn't want to go to practice because they stayed up all night watching YouTube."

"Hmm," Danno grabbed Charlie another juice box from the fridge and handed it to him, before herding them all to the living room to settle on the sofa.

Steve ended up in the middle of Danny and Charlie.

Danny said, "well, Grace committed volleyball, and since she got to have dinner with Will and his family, I bet she is glad she went to practice now."

"Yup," Charlie agreed. "I bet she is still talking to him on her phone."

"Me too, bud. Now, what are you and Uncle Steve watching on the TV."

They both listened as Charlie went on and on about some of his favorite superheroes.

Before long, the little guy quieted down and leaned against Steve and watched his movie.

A little later still, Danny dropped his head to Steve's shoulder and yawned, and then his breathing evened out, and he fell asleep.

Grace came out of her room even later, grabbing her bag and slipping on her shoes as she quietly said, "Uncle Steve, Mom is only a few minutes out."

"Okay, Grace," he gently nudged Danny and then turned to lean Charlie toward the arm of the couch.

Danny scrubbed his face, looked around the room.

Steve told him, "Rachel is only a few minutes away."

Danny nodded, standing to grab Charlie's shoes and then went to help a still sleepy Charlie put them on.

Steve scooped the little boy up when Danny finished with his shoes and went to grab Charlie's bag and open the front door.

Rachel's headlights illuminate the front lawn as she pulled in and hopped out and walked toward them. "How was practice, Grace?" she asked, taking Charlie's bag from Danny.

"It went good, mom, but dinner was nicer."

She looked toward Danny, who just shrugged, taking his son from Steve and following his family to the car, explaining, "we went for pizza with the Grover's after practice."

"Oh," Rachel said, opening the back door for Danny so he could strap Charlie into his seat.

He said something to his son, but Steve couldn't hear him from where he was standing in the doorway. He did see the smile Danny and Rachel shared before giving his daughter a huge bear hug and then shutting her door after his daughter was safely in her seat.

"We'll see you next weekend, Daniel." Rachel got into the car and started backing out as Danny and Steve both waved them off.

"Not this weekend," Steve asked once they were back in the house.

"Nope, Rachel asked to trade since Stan has a thing, so she set up an overnight play date for Charlie with his buddy, Benny, and once Grace found that out, she made plans to go to the movies with some friends."

"Sorry, Danno," Steve told him, sinking back into the sofa as Danny went to grab two more beers from the fridge.

"It's okay," his friend called from the kitchen. "It puts us back on our regular schedule and works out better for Rachel's plans for summer vacation with the kids."

Danny handed him a beer and queued up the Yankee's game from the previous weekend they have been trying to watch for over a week now.

"If you are too tired, Danno, we can watch the game on Saturday, now that you are free."

Danny sat close to him on the sofa, taking a swig from his beer, but shook his head, telling him, "Nah. I had a power nap and am good to go. Besides, I am sure you will think up something for us to do this weekend."

"You know I will, buddy."

They both settled in, and Danny said, "I can offer you some pretzels," the bag was still sitting on the table. "I could have sworn we still had some chips left, but I guess we finished them up last week when the kids were here."

Steve leaned forward to grab the bag and then offered them to Danny first, before taking a few for himself. "No worries," he told his friend. "Besides, everyone knows that pretzels are better with beer anyway."

"Hmm," was Danny's answer, and minutes later, Steve relaxed as Danny's body slumped into his side.

Around the third inning, Steve looked toward his friend to see that Danny's head canted back on the couch. His nearly empty beer was leaning precariously sideways in his loosening grip.

Steve took the bottle and sat it on the side table near him and shifted a bit, to better support Danny's body against his and settled in to watch a few more innings.

His phone display told him it was only a little before nine.

If Danny wasn't awake by ten, Steve would rouse him and send him off to bed.

In the meanwhile, he was going to sit here and enjoy the company, even if Danny was snoring softly, his body was warm and pliant against him.

Being here with a sleepy Danny was a far better prospect than going home to an empty house and a cold bed.

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